Apple today released its new ThunderBolt cable on the online store for connecting Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals to Macs supporting the technology. According to the company, the 2-meter cable supports blazing-fast data transfer with two independent channels of 10Gbit/s each. The cable can also be used for Target Disk Mode between two Macs that support Thunderbolt, or to use a new iMac as a display for a MacBook Pro equipped with Thunderbolt. The Apple ThunderBolt cable is priced at $49.00.

Apple doesn't sell a cable or adapter for less than $29 (except for a 30 pin to USB) with most being $35. It doesn't surprise me that this cable is $50. I would have expected $40 from Apple though.

Hopefully Monoprice does start carrying them. I sell their cables and adapters all day long at $20-$29 a piece and customs love them. They also like that they are $10 less (in a retail environment). I do my best to never sell Apple cables. Some people still demand them though.

My guess is there isn't going to be a large demand for Thunderbolt cables as they will likely ship with a drive or enclosure. I don't see a lot of people doing Mac to Mac Target Disk Mode (most people don't even know what that is). I also don't see a lot of people connecting MacBook or MacBook Pros up to 27" iMacs (I don't know anyone doing this either).

It's kind of funny. Nobody will likely ever buy this cable (as there is no real need for it) but we'll still complain about the price

It's kind of funny. Nobody will likely ever buy this cable (as there is no real need for it) but we'll still complain about the price

Expensive, but guessing it would work for this which became available this morning. It doesn't appear to come with it's own $50 cable. Ah, just a period of time and others will have them...just like the display port cables we were complaining about 2 years ago, or FW800 cables from what seems like yesteryear._________________2.3 GHz i7 Mini (stock)
2.6 GHz i7 Mini, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP, Samsung 840 & WD Black
3.5GHz 6C MP, D700s

Thunderbolt might be twice as fast as USB 3.0, but I fear that everything will be priced three and four times more. It's also going to be tied to SSD pricing for the real fun.

Yes, but it's the way we've all chosen with the Mac.

Slight exaggeration of course. Prices will fall, like the SSD, it will take a few years, but it will happen. Currently it looks like TB is more of a bag of hurt than Blu-ray though._________________2.3 GHz i7 Mini (stock)
2.6 GHz i7 Mini, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP, Samsung 840 & WD Black
3.5GHz 6C MP, D700s

Wow, that's a fairly expensive cable. Here's hoping that Monoprice gets in the game after things take off more.

I'm not sure that Monoprice will be selling them anytime soon. Apple's cable has a Gennum chip at either end of the cable. I'm not saying that fact justifies the price, but that probably makes it harder for a third party company to compete. And one of the main reasons for using the chips, is to prevent errors.